[BC] Re: Wind and STL Mutes

[r.j.carpenter]

A friend at NOAA in Boulder, CO, once had a research project [about 
1970+] to measure the effect of atmospheric turbulence of free-space 
optical paths. They set up a narrow-beam laser on the mesa field station 
north of Boulder and a receiver on the hill behind the Radio Building in 
south Boulder, a distance of about ten miles. The path was clear, but 
right across the center of Boulder. The receiver allowed them to measure 
how far the beam was deflected by the dielectric constant variations due 
to turbulence.  The answer was "quite a bit".

I can't find exactly the right reference, but this gives an idea.
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ao/abstract.cfm?id=19956

Agreed that this was optical and not UHF, and it was CW and they didn't 
measure apparent path length changes as mentioned by RichardBJohnson. I 
think it brings up the question of how narrow is your transmitting beam. 
This in addition to the time/propagation delay issue mentioned by Richard.

bob carpenter
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